Modular interposer architecture providing scalable heat removal, power delivery and communicationCarrICool will deliver a game-changing 3D packaging platform for scale-up of future, many-core, Exascale computing systems. The project will also develop a strategic supplier base in Europe for high-end HPC components and systems integration capabilities in the Exascale era. In CarrICool, advanced More-than-Moore components required to scale to energy efficient ExaFLOP computing performance will be developed and integrated into a modular and multifunctional interposer. Four critical packaging elements are implemented on the CarrICool interposer: i) Improved structural and electrical performance will be provided by expansion matching and high wiring density. ii) low thermal gradients for Beyond-CMOS and silicon photonic devices will be provided by integrated, single-phase, water-cooling cavities. iii) High granularity, distributed Buck-converters using integrated, high-quality power inductors will support energy-efficient power delivery to heterogeneous chip stacks. iv) Off-chip bandwidth will be enabled through low-cost and low-loss passive optical coupling to silicon photonic wave guides. CarrICool is targeting 2-fold improvement in heat removal, 10-fold higher voltage granularity and a 10-fold cost reduction in photonic packaging.Advanced characterization and simulation techniques will be implemented using physics-of-failure-based lifetime modelling to provide design-rules for improved system architecture. The performance of the four packaging elements of the modular interposer will be validated on three separate demonstrators and then integrated on the main CarrICool demonstrator. The CarrICool consortium pools interdisciplinary excellence, uniting ten partners from global companies (2), European SMEs (3), institutes (3) and academia (2) across seven European countries. An Advisory Board ensures the alignment of the project goals with user needs.

Micro- and nano-electronic components are multi-scale in nature, caused by the huge scale differences of the individual materials and components in these products. Consequently, product behaviour is becoming strongly dependent on material behaviour at the atomic scale. To prevent extensive trial-and-error based testing for new technology developments, new powerful quantitative knowledge-based modelling techniques are required. Current continuum-based finite element models rely intrinsically on extensive characterisation efforts to quantify the parameters present in these models (top-down approach). On the other hand, state-of-the-art models at atomic scale are able to describe the material behaviour at molecular level, but predictions at product scale are not feasible yet. Through direct coupling of molecular and continuum models, a multi-disciplinary approach in which experimentally validated multi-scale modelling methods will be developed in order to generate new materials and interfaces for System-in-Package (SiP) products with tailored properties and improved reliability within an industrial environment. In this approach, a user-friendly software tool will be realised which incorporates chemical, physical and electrical information from the atomic level into macroscopic models (bottom-up approach). Furthermore, new and efficient micro- and nano-scale measurement techniques are developed for obtaining detailed information about the most important phenomena at micro- and nano-scale and fast characterisation and qualification of SiPs. An additional important distinguishing part of this project is that, due to the composition of the consortium, the whole industrial development chain is covered: from material development, multi-scale models and experimental methods towards a fully functional commercial software package, ready to be used within an industrial environment.

Tomorrows micro-electronic devices will have to show more functionality and performance at smaller form factor, lower cost and lower energy consumption in order to be competitive on this multi-billion dollar market. Advanced system integration is thus inevitable, a trend bound to joining dissimilar materials with new packaging technologies. These processes must enable lower thermal resistances and higher interconnect density and device reliability under thermomechanical loading.
Hyperconnect addresses these challenges by a radically new material joining process. The objective is to demonstrate superior electrical, thermal and thermomechanical performance and to combine design and technology with the support of simulation and testing. The central new idea comprises a sequential joint forming process, using self-assembly of nanoparticles, polymers and filler composite materials exploiting capillary action and chemical surface functionalisation: In other words, the formed joint reaches its outstanding properties by the very processing of the materials. This contrast to existing technology demands own understanding of the joint formation, joint property creation and the joint reliability.
Therefore advanced experimental characterization and simulation techniques will accompany the material and technology development, in particular involving physics-of-failure-based lifetime modelling. Finally, the joint performance will be validated on four different demonstrators of industrial significance.
To tackle these challenging issues the consortium pools the required interdisciplinary excellence, by uniting nine partners from industry, SMEs and academia of five European countries. Its members are convinced that these new developments will outperform commercially available solutions by one order of magnitude and will radiate out also to other fields in electronic packaging.

Future electronic power devices and packages will need to demonstrate more performance and functionality at reduced cost, size, weight, energy consumption and thermal budget. Further, increasing reliability demands have also to be met by industry to be competitive in this growing multi-billion Euro market of heterogeneously integrated systems.To respond to these challenges, new innovative nano- and micro-technologies and materials, both of which are key enablers for advanced thermal and mechanical interfaces, have to be developed and compatibly integrated to obtain higher electrical, thermal and reliability performance under harsh environmental conditions.Nanotherms objective is to take up these challenges in design, technology and test:Novel approaches to thermal technologies with superior electrical, thermal and thermo-mechanical properties will be developed in the project and demonstrated on automotive, avionics, solid-state lighting and industrial applications. Parallel routes will be followed addressing nano-sinter-adhesive bonding, phonon-coupled VACNT joining, nano-functionalised nano-filled adhesive die attach and graphene-enhanced surfaces. The main principle common to all technologies is the exploitation of nano-effects to obtain outstanding interconnect properties by especially developed processes.In parallel, a multi-scale and multi-domain modelling framework will furnish guidelines for materials design by various approaches from ab-inito up to continuum modelling and verified by corresponding experimental techniques.The consortium, composed of 18 partners from industry, SME and academia out of 8 European countries, embodies the necessary excellence and interdisciplinarity to address these tasks successfully. We are convinced that Nanotherms results will enable the next generation of heterogeneously integrated power packages, cut down thermal interface resistance at least by 50% and impact also on other power system-in-package configurations.

The FATIMA project proposed by the consortium will work on testing and fatigue prediction of carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP) as required in call JTI-CS-2010-3-ECO-01-007. The challenging objective is to go beyond the state of the art in terms of approaches to account for humidity, multi-ply and multi-axiality effects in organic laminate structures. Intensive work in the field resulted in a number of concepts for accelerated lifetime predictions for carbon fiber reinforced polymers. Within FATIMA, these concepts will be adapted to the material provided by the partners of the Clean Sky consortium. The proposed methodology and integration into the fatigue testing procedure will approach expansions addressing humidity effects, different stack-up structures and combined loading of these composite structures. Appropriate models of a multitude of specific laminate structures will be provided as a tool box for composing desired laminates consisting of plies with known behavior. Failure criteria developed for predicting the damage in composite materials due to multi-axial loads will be evaluated, selected and advanced to meet the objectives of the call.